wsteve464

Buy a Polar heart rate strap download the app and record the ride to your phone and it can automatically upload to Strava. I found that wearing a digital sport watch during riding was pretty much worthless they take two hands to operate and you can barely see the screen in full sun.

jade408

Agreed. I had their first watch (analog). The leather band died after 6 months. The watch after 9. They replaced the watch and band, and both were dead in 6 more months.

SylvainG

Another +1 for Garmin VivoActive 3. Not very expensive for an activity watch.

Milton Keynes

I bought a cheap Chinese smart watch, SN60 plus, for around $35 or so. The watch is great, but the downloadable software leaves a little to be desired. Unfortunately it won't sync with Strava but I can still go into the app and see my heart rate and other vital data. I was hoping it would work in that capacity but I'm not too disappointed it doesn't.

DomaneS5

I have a 3 year old Fitbit Blaze that works well for what I do. Seems to be accurate with average heart rate over rides. I sync it with a cheap Android phone.

I'm gonna roll with the Blaze until it dies. Versa is the new Fitbit model that replaced the Blaze, AFAIK.

zen_

This was also my experience with an aliexpress GPS sports watch (iwownfit P1). The watch itself was pretty decent and easy to use, but the software was total junk. It also didn't use a .fit file format to include data from heart rate or cadence sensors.

I would strongly suggest a Garmin watch because the software is amazing, and the watches can easily pair up to ANT+ sensors to use in the same way you'd use a head unit. The data just won't be right in front of you all the time, but is exactly the same for post-ride analysis.

Dr.Lou

Didn’t Bret Favre say something similar?

Slightspeed

I've had a Garmin Vivosmart HR for a around 3 years, and suddenly the battery won't take a charge. The band also broke about the same time. I found bands on Ebay for <$5, but the battery is not replaceable. 😡 I contacted Garmin and was quoted $89 for repair. I only paid $75 for it used from a friend who wasn't using it much. I checked Amazon and found a refurb Vivosmart HR for $59, incl shipping. I've bought refurb cameras before and been happy with them. I was happy with the Vivosmart up to now, so, I'll give it another try. I really prefer my Garmin 810 with HR chest strap for cycling, but the watch is useful for other activities, and does interface to Strava and Garmin Connect as well as My Fittness Pal. I will never understand the products that don't allow reasonable user repair, like battery replacement. Sure glad I didn't buy the $5 band!

Milton Keynes

You can tell that not much effort was put into the phone app for this watch, or else it was rushed. And it's also got some "Engrish," or bad translations from Chinese to English. But it works well enough for my purposes.

WIshMater

How do you set watch to auto pause? I bought iwownfit P1 yesterday and still haven't figured it out yet.

wphamilton

I have the same question. For me, Sports watch would mean GPS, with pace and average pace (or speed) displayed on the watch in real time, and accurate HR also displayed on the watch in real time. Inexpensive, as compared to a Garmin (any Garmin). If the GPS has to be provided by a phone over bluetooth that's ok - as long as it shows on the watch itself.

The reason I stress "on the watch" and "real time" is that a lot of (or maybe all) of the "fitness watches" that I've shopped say that they provide pace, but when you dig deep enough it's just through the app, and sometimes only after the workout. I'd want it to be a big number, showing on the watch all the time without cycling through someone's idea of a menu tree. The other wish is that I want to see just a number, or two numbers, in as large a font as possible. Not a pretty heart icon that takes up half of the display, that I see on so many of the watches, or the tiny fonts that I'd have to stop and put reading glasses on to see, after cycling to the right menu. I know, it's my own fault for letting my eyes get old but it's still a deal-killer if I can't see the numbers.

Does what I want even exist?

sean.hwy

I am new to biking. So this is from someone who has been hiking every weekend
the last few years.

I purchased a Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire for it's long battery life when using GPS.
My other watched died after 14 hours when in GPS tracking mode. I was so bummed
when I was hiking at Yosomite to not get my whole hike recorded.

With that said since I already owned the Garmin Fenix 5X Sapphire. I purchased
"Garmin Cadence Sensor 2, Bike Sensor to Monitor Pedaling Cadence" to go with
it.


Now my watch has speed, miles, cadence and all kinds of other things you can down load to
the cloud and your phone to look at later. ( elevatation, map, heart rate).
You can drill down on your phone or your computer to look at more specific data.

jgwilliams

I used to have a Garmin Vivosmart HR+ which worked pretty well but the battery started to die after 2 years. Heart rate tracking was hopeless for cycling - this tends to be a problem with wrist based HR monitors - but since I have an Edge on the bike this wasn't really an issue for me.

I'm sure the Apple watch is great for those with iPhones. If you're an Android user I can recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Battery life is typically 3 days but I find that if I pop it on the charger while I have a shower I can push that out to 5 or 6 days. It's a very nice screen and a very solid steel body.

joeruge

I have Garmin Foreunner 35. It cost me about $150, but I have seen them recently for around $100. It couldn't be simpler to use and has enough functionality for me. Uploads easily to Strava and the battery last at least through 14 hours of tracking and a week just on your wrist. Very happy with it.

Joe R

Nick 93

If you are looking for something cheap that works well look at the amazfit bip. It's about $80 and does everything that most $120-$150 watches do. Definitely worth looking into.

Nick 93

I forgot to read the second page of posts but check out the amazfit bip. I've been using it and it sounds like something you might like.

wphamilton

It looks better than the cheap fitness watches for sure. HR pretty accurate, say +/- 10 bpm? Is it convenient to swipe from HR to Pace screens?

Nick 93

HR is fairly accurate from what I've seen. While exercising the main screen shows pace, time since starting activity, HR, and miles traveled. Swipe down once and you get elevation changes and a few other things I don't use much. Also the app (amazfit) is pretty nice and syncs with Strava if you use that. So far I really like it.

Jamie1978

I'm a fan of garmin. I wear a Garmin Forerunner 235 and 645 music. I bought the 645 brand new for right at $400 but the 235 I found in excellent shape on eBay for $160. That's was a few years ago, you can probably find one cheaper than that now. Both are excellent watches that link to Strava and numerous other apps

Both of these allow you to set the screen to whatever you want to see while working out, pace, speed, HR, distance,elevation all in pretty big font. You can also use either of them as just a Heart monitor with some of the bike computers.

wphamilton

To revisit this, although I was going to buy the Amazfit Bip on Nick's recommendation my wife bought me a Fitbit Versa 2 for Valentine's day. Much more pricey than I was going for, but I have to say it does everything I wanted and then some that I didn't know I wanted.

Fredo_Adagio

I have a Samsung, and I don't recommend it.

The Samsung watch works with my Samsung (Android) phone. I can answer calls through the watch, which makes it very convenient and is the only reason I have stuck with it.

The Samsung watch has several exercise modes including swimming. I swim laps every weekday morning, and the watch is able to count laps, which is a great feature.

One day after swimming, the watch was dead. I called Samsung and was told the watch was still under warranty and I should send it in. A few days after sending it in, I received an e-mail stating that the watch was damaged by water intrusion, which is not covered by the warranty.

A SAMSUNG SPORTS WATCH WITH A SWIM MODE HAS A WARRANTY THAT DOES NOT COVER DAMAGE DUE TO WATER INTRUSION!!!

The e-mail from Samsung quoted a price to repair the watch that was more than the cost of a new watch. After fuming over this for a few days, I bought another Samsung. I decided the ability to answer my phone through the watch was worth more than the ability to record my swims.

If I have any more problems with this watch, I'll switch to Garmin or Polar.

Morg33

Hello, I have an Apple watch, I am very happy about it. If you are an Apple person it's just perfect for you. I got very lucky anyway, I won this watches on a site for a very cheap price, if you want to give a try here is the site https://www.lootie.com/. Wish you the best luck!

Fendertele

Relatively new Apple Watch series 3 user. At $200 I am very pleased. I wanted the integration it offers with the iPhone. Syncs heart rate to Strava and Zwift.

hillyman

Garmin Instinct great so far

NoWhammies

I have a Garmin Forerunner 235. Does everything I want it to. Battery life has been great. I track a lot of my workouts in Garmin, so the interaction with Garmin Connect was a bonus for me too.